Friday, December 28, 2012

A Plutonic Sea Goat Stellium Carries Us Into 2013

Photo: Willow
 

As we move through winter solstice and the northern hemisphere officially tips back toward the Sun, the heavily-charged year of 2012 comes to a close with a conjunction between the Sun and Lord of the Underworld Pluto in Capricorn, exact December 30. The End Times hangover starts to dig in here.

Huh. We're still here. And we still have the same problems to deal with on this planet. Imagine that.

As Ascension Fever starts to lift and the pumped-up End Times mania peters out, the stark situation we're faced with on this planet is lit up as 2012 closes, brought right into our current, conscious moment by the Sun-Pluto conjunction. There can be no denying it. We're staring straight into the heart of the beast. And the complexity of the root system sustaining its life is absolutely staggering.

At the same time, we're also quite aware at this time that we're not alone with it. We're possibly more aware of this than ever before. Soul mate asteroid Juno is in Capricorn, taking part in a sea goat stellium with Mercury, the Sun, and Pluto. We know now that there are people who see what we see, who understand what we understand. There are people facing down this beast all over the globe - the others who have not stopped, who have not let up.

We may seem to be physically alone in our travails. We may not see a single living soul around who seems to understand. But we do form a framework and a root system of our very own, one that is ultimately unbreakable, unshakable. We're working toward the same goals, however we go about it.

Turning the vicious plans of the global financiers ass over teakettle. Slipping out of multiple layers of control mechanism driving us into (continued) hell on Earth. Breaking free, one down and dirty Plutonic realization at a time. Freeing energy and re-directing resources toward the improvement of conditions on this planet while moving out of the structures built and reinforced by dinosaurs.

Our Juno soul mates can also be of the highly frictional variety right now, getting under our skin, showing us the extent of the obstacles in our way. These people and situations are the thorns in our sides, showing us the type of commitment and the degree of hard work it's going to take to make progress and to achieve goals under these conditions.

There are Juno in Capricorn soul mates out there now who are vying for our spot, ready to knock our feet out from under us, ready to capitalize on our hard work. These soul mates give us the competitive edge now, showing us where we need to fortify, where we need a more honed strategy, where we could use more solid footing, where we need to put in a bit more work.

If there's one piece of advice to glean from our lady Juno in the sign of concrete, hard-won achievement disposited by Saturn in Scorpio, it's this: don't let people climb the mountain you've built. Make them build their own.

We can sidestep most of the crap during Capricorn season if we successfully combine Plutonic awareness of competitors with strategy.

With old school Capricorn, it isn't simply about getting to the top of the heap. It's about staying there once you've arrived. There's often a lot of fear with that sign related to maintaining position, maintaining dominance, maintaining control.

At this point, though, keeping all that fear up is more trouble than its worth.

Goats kept by farmers often have structures put in their pens. Goats like structures and obstacles to climb. If you watch them interacting, one goat will climb to the highest vantage point it can. For a moment, it's the King of the World. Then another goat comes along, a rival, and topples that goat from its lofty perch. Then another comes along and does the same thing. Then the original goat is back in the game, reclaiming its spot. And so on.

The themes here, missing from a lot of the Capricorn of the day, are playfulness, fluidity, a natural organization and re-organization of power and responsibility - even while working earnestly to thwart competitors.

It's really not that big a deal, Cap. You can be the goat at the top of the heap one day and the one at the bottom of the heap the next. It doesn't really matter. You're still the same goat. And maybe you'll realize you don't care about climbing those stinking heaps anymore, anyway.

See, with Pluto transiting Capricorn, the societal definitions of success are slowly morphing. The agreed-upon pinnacles of public prowess are shifting. The things considered prestigious now and in the future are not necessarily the same as they once were.

At a certain point, we barely recognize the old indicators. They become parody. (Weren't they always, when you get right down to it?)

So what, sitting on top of a heap of dirty money is no longer considered the height of success?

Playing every dirty trick in the book as you rise to the top is no longer considered best business practise?

A cookie cutter McMansion is no longer the prime housing situation?

Plastic, fake-tanned Real Housewife isn't the most strived-for look?

Driving your gas-guzzling Escalade to the corner store no longer wins admiration?

Well, it might. But only from people who have their heads wayyyy up their own asses.

As we hurtle headlong into weird and wild Aquarius, the hierarchies are leveling - if we facilitate this. Transformer dwarf planet Pluto in Capricorn is changing the rules of the game. It's changing the Capricorn game altogether.

There's really no need to topple anyone from any mountain if we all have our own to climb. If we're in competition, ultimately, with ourselves. Beating our own best scores and improving on our own best results. The old school Capricorn attachments to "success" and "prestige" and public image and turning the competition into pulp become tiring detritus, easily sloughed off, easily seen through with the Plutonic X-ray vision.

All you have to do is change the rules of the game, and suddenly the hierarchies that seemed set in stone, the dangling carrots that seemed so coveted, the people who seemed so enviable by so many - no longer are.


The Sun conjuncts Pluto December 30.
Mercury conjuncts Juno January 4.
Mercury conjuncts Pluto January 6.
Juno conjuncts Pluto January 14.
Venus conjuncts Pluto January 17.
Venus conjuncts Juno January 17.

Friday, December 21, 2012

Happy Solstice, Merry Christmas, and Happy Holidays From Willow's Web Astrology!

The Sun entered tropical Capricorn at 5:12 a.m. Central Standard Time this morning, marking winter solstice in the northern hemisphere. We now officially tip back toward the Sun and daylight hours start to increase. Always a nice day to observe.

I'm taking a break from doing readings next week for the holidays. 
 
All the best to you and yours for the holidays and for 2013 from the winter wonderland that is Saskatchewan! And yes, these pictures were taken during broad daylight.


 The faeries are hibernating


Hoar frost on the cottonwoods

 
  Winter landscape painting
 
 
Winter farmscape


Photos: Willow
 
 
 

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Avoiding the Mindfuckery Hangover of the Mercury Square to Neptune and Chiron

Photos: Willow

The Mercury in Sagittarius square to Neptune in Pisces was the dominant aspect during the most recent Mercury retrograde (November 6 to 26). This aspect was exact at the Blood Moon Full Moon in Taurus on October 29, at the Alpha Snake New Moon eclipse in Scorpio on November 13, and again on December 11, just before the Sagittarius New Moon and the events in Newtown, Connecticut.
 
This is Mercury (the mind, communication, information, media) in hard aspect to Neptune (deception, illusion, permeation, confusion, fog), and we are seeing a hyped-up manufacturing of reality through mass media channels.

I don't care what the foo foo astrologers are telling you. Neptune can be one of the nastiest influences in astrology. Conjunct wounded healer Chiron, its influence is even more potentially devastating. Mercury can be a little bastard itself, and the combination of Mercury in Sagittarius in hard aspect to Neptune and Chiron in Pisces has been screwing with our heads for a good while now. The long retrograde in Scorpio helped us to disentangle some of the dynamics, but it also held the strong possibility that we would become straight-up obsessed and consumed by them.

From a previous post:

"The wacky, dominance-hungry occultists will be drawing all sorts of nasty energy onto the planet through this [Scorpio] New Moon, all hot and bothered over the serpent imagery. The myths talk about a period of snake-worship secretly brought to Earth. Under worship of the God of the snakes, this period brings evil, crime, unhappiness, bad weather, and death. Stirring up hell for the people.

Detrimental trajectories will be set by some coming out of this New Moon, and with a Mercury-Neptune square strongly colouring the proceedings, there is a tendency to be unknowingly drawn in.

Mercury in Sagittarius will be exactly square Neptune in Pisces on the day of the Taurus Full Moon (October 29), and it will retrograde into this exact square again on the day of the Scorpio New Moon (November 13). This one is working us over a bit...

The Mercury-Neptune squares have "glamourous, media-driven mindfuck" written all over them. But it's more than that. It's psychic media. It's messages sent through those channels. Manipulation of mass psychic energy and impressions. The power of suggestion, particularly from those considered glamourous, star-like, special, heroic, truth-telling - but also in our day-to-day interactions. Communication that attempts to slip things by us. Chatty deception.

Watch the stories and narratives being furthered at this time. The mass media drones on in new frequency, as does the pseudo-alternative media. Diversionary "exo-political" stories supposedly telling us what's really going on on this planet open into new chapters. New Age gurus shape shift into something more hip to the now. Snake oil alchemically transforms into something delicious, tantalizing, and **NEW**.

That's what people are always searching for, isn't it? Something **NEW**?

**NEW** and improved versions of fascist spiritualism, including in the political realms, will be "trending," to use the vernacular. "Swallow this very old product with the exciting new flavouring down whole."

Neptune is stationing to go direct November 11 at zero Pisces, permeating the atmosphere with its wool-over-eyes themes and ensuring the Kool-Aid is especially potent. People can be very impressionable over the next few weeks, very easily led and misled. Ideas can be planted en masse. Things can be slipped by. Consensus reality is particularly malleable and can be manufactured and shaped to benefit certain factions."

The events of Newtown, Connecticut, like those of Aurora, Colorado, are being projected through mass media into the minds of the people, permeating the collective psyche with images, impressions, emotions, trauma. And fog. Lots of fog.

We've had those socked-in grey-white skies that have become so familiar, along with fairly dense fog since the Sagittarius New Moon. Fog is not often experienced here. Definitely not for almost a week, and definitely not in December. It's something I intuitively pinpoint as a man-made effect related to frequency.

It's like a smoke machine. Like the smoke machine that is filling the collective psyche right now.

At the tail-end astrological Piscean era, we're tired. Our empathy, our sympathy, our emotional and psychic faculties are pretty much tapped at this point. They've been beaten up and over-stimulated by all the horror that has gone on and continues to go on, piped into our living rooms and into our minds via mass media channels. On top of all the 2012/End of the World stuff that has been implanted over the past few years, we're at the saturation point. We're at December 21.

And the people who direct the media channels know this.

The constant bombardment by dead children, shocked and grieving parents, and traumatized Newtown citizens is a media display designed to permeate our minds so we can't think about anything else. It's designed to overload, to burn out the last of our empathy and sympathy on this one over-saturated, sensationalized event. It's designed to create emotional catatonia and burnout - a very malleable state.

I'm not downplaying the horror or the tragedy of Newtown. But the truth is, some similar horror goes on, and is intentionally brought down, in some area of the world on a weekly basis.

The events going on now are tied in to the Alpha Snake New Moon conjunct unfortunate fixed star Unukalhai (Alpha Serpentis). That New Moon triggered Adam Lanza's highly-stressed natal Pluto in Scorpio, and it ushered in another wave of ruthless violence and murder.

Events like those in Newtown and Aurora might be going on in seemingly random places in seemingly random ways, but they really aren't. These events are tied to the same root as violence  being brought down all around the world. It's tied to the same interests, to the same people, to the same money.

There's an inevitability related to what's going on, and if you see the events of Newtown and Aurora in context, side-by-side with other violent events going on around the world, you see that they are not really random at all but rather, par for the course.

Thirty Palestinian children were killed by Israeli bombs in one week in November coming out of the Alpha Snake Scorpio New Moon.

Twenty U.S. children have just been killed in a school shooting following the Sagittarius New Moon.

The children from Newtown are memorialized on mass media channels by weeping parents. We see the children's pictures, their sweet faces. We know their names and their favourite things to do. But the Palestinian children, and the children like them, remain the nameless, faceless. These are tragedies of equal measure in my mind, but not in the minds of most these days. And they're connected.

There is a strong "as long as me and mine are OK, everything's fine" ethic in the Cancer Sun nation of the United States of America. A grand case of "look the other way-itis." It really doesn't work that way. You can't perpetuate horrific violence and horror in certain areas of the world but claim other areas off limits. This is a Pisces lesson it would behoove the masses to grasp at the tail-end astrological Piscean era: If one area's in the shit, we're all in the shit, and it's only a matter of time before certain events start erupting that are tied in to the dynamics.

Events like Aurora and Newtown.

As the Neptunian Newtown fog machine keeps chugging along, leading every news program, the masses are diverted, perhaps, from a few other events going on on the planet. The LIBOR banking scandal. The mobilization of the United States for more war. The New Great Depression, still isolated to a relatively small test group. All this is connected.

You're being played. We're being played.

And the only way to see through the fog is to use our own eyes, our own minds, our own intuition. Sharing information and collecting the pieces of the puzzle together.

Don't feel guilty about shutting their media display off (though bits and pieces of the puzzle can be gleaned from it). It's a mockery. We're being mocked, and the innocent dead are being mocked.

We can do better on our own.

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Adam Lanza: Another Pluto in Scorpio Overloaded

NOTE: There is now good evidence that the Sandy Hook shootings did not happen. You can take the article that follows as a commentary on the very real pressures on the Pluto in Scorpio generation. It's possible Adam Lanza died one day before Sandy Hook.

On December 14, coming out of the Sagittarius New Moon, a 20-year-old male named Adam Lanza reportedly entered Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut and shot and killed 27 people, including 20 children, and then himself.

Lanza's mother was a teacher at the elementary school and had also been found dead in her home.

Adam Lanza's birth date has been listed as April 22, 1992. According to news reports, he was an honour student, and a family member has told media he had been diagnosed with a form of autism. One of his old classmates told the press, "You could tell he was a genius." Lanza's parents divorced in 2009 when he was 17.

When an event like this happens, people always say, "I don't understand how someone could do something like this."

I can.

I don't like it. I don't justify or condone it. I know it's wrong. But I understand how a person could be pushed to the point where they hate society so much that they could do this. And I think the mainstream has to start looking at this if we're going to change things.

There are obviously a lot of factors involved in shootings like these. The underlying culture of neverending war and violence in the United States, so implanted in the psyches of citizens from birth on, is part of it.

For me, it also comes back to the way "outsiders" are treated by the mainstream society. An outsider who has autism (some form of "neurological diversity") along with an above-average intelligence level, for example.

I know how cruel people and society can be toward people who don't fit in, and I know what that can do to a person. If you don't feel that you belong or that you can ever enjoy the benefits of "normal" society the way other people can, it's easy to dissociate from it, to hate it, and to even want it destroyed.

Especially when you're in your teens and twenties. And especially when you have a highly-stressed natal Pluto in Scorpio.

Thursday, December 13, 2012

The Myth of the Apolitical Astrologer

From a previous post:

"There are belief systems, allegiances, motivations, and traditions underlying anyone's practise of astrology, and Saturn in Scorpio is a time to be very clear on that."

It's important to realize at this time that the personal is political. It doesn't matter if you don't vote, if you can't tell left-wing from right, or if you prefer Big Bang Theory reruns to the nightly news. The decisions people make on a daily basis about what to do, what to say, and how to live their lives are political.

Astrologers are no different.

There's no such thing as purely objective astrology, just as there's no such thing as purely objective journalism. There are always forces shaping the information and perspectives that are put forth, as well as determining which information and perpectives are not put forth.

An astrologer who chooses not to touch the controversial sociopolitical issues of the times is making a personal political choice just as an astrologer who chooses to write and speak about them is.

Though I'm sure most professional astrologers, like me, are careful not to infuse paid readings with heavy personal politics, how an astrologer interprets certain placements or transits is most certainly political. There is a basic foundation for astrology, but beyond those basics, it's open to interpretation.

There's a lot of hiding and glossing over of personal politics and true personal perspective going on in the astrology of the day.

Part of this comes about due to the strong New Age beliefs running through much of it. The idea often promoted by the New Age is that "politics is unenlightened."

"Poverty, war, social justice issues - those are all 3D, man. That's density. We're 5D! We're so beyond all that, it's not even a part of our reality."

Yeah. Right.

Any astrologer who wants to keep up their New Age herd will be careful to tiptoe around sociopolitical issues that could be considered "negative," "dark," or "a bummer" by the brethren.

Even among non-New Age astrologers, though, there is a lot of whitewashing of personal politics and perspective. A lot of astrologers choose not to say how they really feel about things so as not to alienate their followers, supporters, or paid customers.

Others take a middle-of-the-road stance so carefully crafted to be benign that it basically says nothing. This is especially the case with astrologers who attempt to sustain "The Astro Empire" - mass popularity among the relatively few people interested in astrology.

The fact of the matter is, personal politics influences astrology, as does the whitewashing of personal politics, and this is true for even the most cookbook of astrologers. This has been somewhat hidden, but with Saturn transiting Scorpio, things hidden beneath the surface will be drawn out into our concrete, in-your-face realities.

Underlying personal politics, beliefs, allegiances, motivations, and alliances strongly influence the astrology of the day, but as long as that influence remains hidden, we're working with a very skewed astrological landscape.

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Beautiful Resurrections

Venus transiting Scorpio has resurrected (Scorpio) my jewellery-making mojo (Venus) after a substantial hiatus, which has been surprising and very nice. You can see some of the new pieces along with the old at Weeping Willow Designs.
 
I also discovered that my silver company - which announced its closure due to the high price of silver last year - has been resurrected and is back in business after a move to California. This is a very nice expression of Saturn in Scorpio: the resurrection of businesses once thought dead. The turbulence and changes we're going through certainly have the possibility of kicking up surprising reversals of fortune.

So after thinking the jewellery factory that is me had been officially retired, there is the possibility of a continuance. I won't be getting back to Art of My Heart-style factory output, but a little retirement gig here and there would be nice.

Mercury is currently moving direct through the final degrees of its retrograde shadow in Scorpio, just past a conjunction to the North Node. The jewellery is handmade (Mercury), and I'm using other people's resources (beads) to do it (Scorpio). I've also been using beads that were given to me as gifts, which is always special.

Uranus is stationing direct. We're heading into the Dark of the Moon in Scorpio ahead of Thursday's potent, post-eclipse season Sagittarius New Moon. Jupiter is conjunct Black Moon Lilith in Gemini. And we have those Yods making things a little edgy and a lot weird.

Finding a productive outlet for the jingly jangly energy is important. Keep your hands busy whenever you can, and stay out of Mercury in Scorpio worst-case-scenario thinking. Touch things. Nice things. Like pretty rocks or crystals or other things that can take a charge.

The tensions break a little coming out of the Sagittarius New Moon December 13.

Monday, December 3, 2012

Yods, Oddness, and Awkward Social Angles Create Breakthroughs in Understanding Through April 2013

The astrological configuration dominating the skies for the first third of 2013 is the Yod. Two very prominent Yod configurations are forming now and will be in effect into late April 2013.

These configurations are very strong at both the December 2012 solstice and the March 2013 equinox, with exact aspects forming at those times and transiting personal planets further activating the configurations.

Yods are configurations made up of three bodies forming two difficult quincunx aspects (150 degrees) and one supportive sextile (60 degrees). The aspect lines form a skinny triangle.

The first Yod forming now, Yod A, involves Saturn in Scorpio sextile Pluto in Capricorn as the base of the triangle with both bodies quincunx Jupiter in Gemini, which is the apex of the triangle.


Yod A, December 22, 2012 - click to enlarge


The second Yod, Yod B, involves Uranus in Aries sextile Jupiter in Gemini as the base of the triangle with both bodies quincunx Saturn in Scorpio, which is the apex of the triangle. Yod B is somewhat loose currently but tightens around March equinox.


Yod B, December 22, 2012 - click to enlarge


Complicated doesn't begin to describe the subtext these days.

The apex of a Yod - where it is pointing - is often referred to as the "finger of God." The body at the apex is generally considered the key to the successful navigation of the configuration.

In this case, though, we have one finger of God pointing to Jupiter in Gemini and one finger of God pointing to Saturn in Scorpio.

One finger points to expansion, broadening of horizons, interaction, movement, inspiration, enthusiasm, and activity. The other points to restriction, withdrawal, sober second thought, grounding, conservatism, and seriousness.

Jupiter wants to make a big splash with a boisterous expenditure of energy while Saturn wants to stay firmly on the downlow, conserving every last iota. Each placement horrifies the other, to a certain extent.

We're working with two different layers of energy dynamics here.

In Yod A, the base of the Yod - the sextile between Saturn and Pluto - could create a real Debbie Downer effect. Though this is a supportive aspect, things can become too concentrated here, too serious, too severe, too dark. Things could get downright miserly. We could become too much of a closed circuit, finding ourselves in a state of deep, dark, 'cabin fever' stale. If we're too strongly confined by this Saturn-Pluto vortex, the relieving point becomes Jupiter in Gemini: Get some fresh air flowing. Get out there in the world. Talk to people. Enjoy yourself. Move around in your neighbourhood. Search for some new stimulation, some new ideas, some new conversations. Talk about mundane daily affairs. Keep things light. Find out what people are talking about. Discover a new interest.

On the other hand, in Yod B, the base of the Yod - the sextile between Uranus in Aries and Jupiter in Gemini - could create way too much stimulation. This one can put our brains on overdrive. New ideas could be bouncing around and popping in our heads like popcorn kernels heated by a lightning strike. Over-the-top excitement about the future and an overwhelming drive to move forward could be coursing through our systems, making wheels spin. If we're being charged up with too much Jupiter-Uranus energy, the relieving point then becomes Saturn in Scorpio: Slow down. Wait. Get your feet back on the ground. Get serious about everything that has to be resolved before you go bounding forward. Understand that your big ideas are going to take time to develop and that a lot of them will burn out before they even get off the ground. Adopt more of a "show me the money" stance before you go off half-cocked.

Yods aren't comfortable configurations, as they involve two quincunxes, which are probably the most awkward aspect in astrology.

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Mercury Direct in Scorpio and Guts-Spilling Eruptions

From the Full Moon Eclipse Report:

"Mental pressure is building, and if people haven't found satisfying outlets for their mental energy during the Mercury retrograde process, the desire to spill their guts will be strong."

Mercury stationed direct at 18 degrees Scorpio at 4:47 p.m. CST yesterday, and signs of the station are visible in social media.

Some of the local flavour from southeast Saskatchewan:

- This morning, a woman who runs a store in a nearby town posted a list of all the people who owe her store money, complete with amounts, on Facebook. Social media (Mercury) + other people's resources (Scorpio). In this case, other people have her resources.

- Someone is poisoning barking dogs in that same town. (Probably a retiree who snapped.) The person struck again yesterday. The woman whose dog died has posted a $2,000 reward for information that brings the person to justice. Dogs barking in the neighbourhood and social media (Mercury) + poison and vengeance (Scorpio)

Things are being pushed to a head at this station. And if people can't tolerate keeping quiet any longer as Mercury moves direct and stirs the Scorpy pot over the next two weeks, it's going to come out.

Back in the day, it would have come out through around-the-town gossip, which spread quickly via telephone and coffee chit chat.

But social media is the Mercurial avenue of choice for many these days. With people tapped in the way they are, social news and gossip spreads unnaturally quickly and also has the possibility for greatly intensified backlash. Caution is required, people!

If you'd like a hawk-eyed view of the current themes as well as tips on how to navigate, consider Willow's Smoking Hot Full Moon Eclipse Report. Ten dollahs will, indeed, make it hollah.

Friday, November 23, 2012

Israel Opens the Gates of Hell at the Alpha Snake New Moon

Following in the long tradition of using astrology/astronomy to time acts of war, Israel initiated missile strikes against Palestine November 14, as we were coming out of the Alpha Snake New Moon total solar eclipse.

The New Moon was exact at 4:08 p.m. Central Standard Time on November 13.

Eclipses are souped-up New and Full Moons, indicating unstable, "backdrop change" periods. The curtain falls on one scene and raises on another - often very dramatically. Occult-assisted governments often use eclipses to time events, particularly acts of war and destruction.

The New Moon total solar eclipse was in Scorpio, a sign ruled by war planet Mars and Lord of the Underworld Pluto, and it was a powerful time for attacks that would open new chapters in old conflicts.

The New Moon eclipse at 21 degrees Scorpio was conjunct unfortunate fixed star Alpha Serpentis, associated with all things nasty. It was also conjunct the Scorpio North Node, indicating a death and war (Scorpio) trajectory (North Node) that will have lasting, eclipse-boosted effects.

From a previous article:

"The wacky, dominance-hungry occultists will be drawing all sorts of nasty energy onto the planet through this New Moon, all hot and bothered over the serpent imagery. The myths talk about a period of snake-worship secretly brought to Earth. Under worship of the God of the snakes, this period brings evil, crime, unhappiness, bad weather, and death. Stirring up hell for the people.

Detrimental trajectories will be set by some coming out of this New Moon, and with a Mercury-Neptune square strongly colouring the proceedings, there is a tendency to be unknowingly drawn in."

The initial Israeli attack assassinated a man considered the Hamas leader, Ahmed Al-Jaabari, and killed 14 others. Eight Palestinian civilians were killed in that attack, reportedly including a pregnant woman with twins, an 11-month old boy, and three infants. At least 130 more people were wounded.

Hamas has apparently said in the past that the killing of its leader Al-Jabaari would "open the gates of hell" for Israel. I'd say opening the gates of hell is exactly what Israel is trying to do with this timed attack during Scorpio season, boosted by the underlying symbolism of eclipse-potent Alpha Serpentis.

Palestine retaliated to the initial attack with a rocket attack of its own that killed three Israelis.

Israel responded by bombarding Palestine from sea, land, and air for eight days while threatening a ground invasion.

The Israeli attacks that began just after the Alpha Snake New Moon ended just after the First Quarter Moon with the Sun on the final (29th) degree of Scorpio. (November 14 to November 21, 2012) The last third of heavy duty Scorpio season was used for these attacks, kicked off by the New Moon eclipse.

Around 160 Palestinians have now been killed by the attacks with more than 1,100 injured. The majority are civilians. At least 30 Palestinian children have been killed.

The Israeli death toll: six.

(I have a feeling if 30 Israeli kids were dead right now, we'd be in World War III.)

At the time of the Alpha Snake New Moon, Mercury was retrograde at zero degrees Sagittarius square Neptune at zero degrees Pisces.

Here, we see the effects of media-perpetuated illusion (Neptune in Pisces) on the reporting of the truth (Mercury in Sagittarius). We see elements of underlying religious perspective and bias in media. And we see a time period when people are particularly susceptible to the power of suggestion via media channels.

From the same previous article:

"People can be very impressionable over the next few weeks, very easily led and misled. Ideas can be planted en masse. Things can be slipped by. Consensus reality is particularly malleable and can be manufactured and shaped to benefit certain factions."

As usual, reality is being manufactured by the mainstream media in its reporting of the events in the Middle East. You see the Neptunian fog coming down over people's minds as the mainstream public swallows and then furthers versions of the story that are untrue and nonfactual.

The mainstream media has turned the scenario into a two-sided affair, rather than an Israeli attack followed by a Palestinian retaliation which then becomes the excuse for a complete bombardment by Israel.

The media is calling it a "cease fire," when, in reality, Israel has decided - for now - to stop bombing Palestine, dropping the Neptunian veil over its actions and using the media-driven sway of public opinion to its benefit.

As per usual, Israeli casualties lead the news while the much heavier Palestinian casualties are tacked on later.

As per usual, we have the other leaders of militarized and industrialized nations, including Barack Obama, addressing the public through mainstream media channels, reinforcing Israel's "right to defend itself." Bullies backing up bullies.

In reality, Israel was the aggressor here. It's a rare case when Israel is not the aggressor.

Israel is a wealthy nation armed to the teeth with bombers and missiles and tanks and nuclear weapons and hundreds of thousands of highly-trained, highly-armed soldiers.

Palestine is a relatively poor, occupied country with rocket launchers and stones that has been ghettoized and beaten down.

With Scorpio, you have to go to the root issue. The rest is symptomatic. Palestine is being militarily occupied and ghettoized by Israel. Until that's addressed, the conditions for peace are not there, and the diplomatic conciliation processes we see playing out on TV screens across the globe ("Oooh, Egypt's brokering peace!") are just for show.

Neptune has just stationed direct (November 11) at zero Pisces and is still very potent in the astro atmosphere. Neptune in Pisces involves the things that float around in the collective unconscious as well as the ways in which reality can be shaped via manipulation of those things.

At the tail-end astrological Piscean era, the collective psychic soup is full to the brim. And at this very moment, with Mercury square Neptune (final aspect December 11 with Mercury direct), the things that have been implanted in the collective unconscious are ripe for manipulation.

One very potent Neptunian illusion being played upon now is the idea that violent Zionist Israelis represent the Jewish victims of the Nazi Germany holocaust. In reality, violent Zionist Israelis belong to the power cabal that perpetrates holocausts on this planet.

The Nazi Germany holocaust has been drilled into both the conscious minds and the collective unconscious via media for the past 70 years. In many minds, it is the only holocaust, when, in fact, many, many holocausts have gone on on this planet, and many holocausts continue to go on on this planet.

What the governments of the United States of America and its allies ordered in Vietnam and Iraq both rank right up there, for example.

The collective unconscious has been so permeated by the Nazi Germany holocaust, however, that, as a whole, we are not adequately dealing with atrocities currently being committed. Certain chords are being played over and over again like a record skipping, drawing people back to that event and keeping them there. En masse, people are not comprehending that current atrocities are part of the same system, perpetuated by the same groups throughout time and space.

The collective unconscious (Neptune) as well as conscious public opinion (Mercury) are being played and manipulated so that current atrocities are invisible, explained away, and unconsciously allowed. The Neptunian veil drops over it all - unless you actively remove it. Repeatedly.

Making current atrocities invisible or seen only as bits and pieces on the TV screen, without context, allows history to repeat.

We are currently experiencing a square series between Uranus and Pluto (2012 - 2015) that was last experienced during the Great Depression and the lead-up to World War II. We have to understand that there are groups in power attempting to replay a very nasty historical cycle.

Understanding that context and our own context within it is the only way to break out of the grand-scale manipulation and mindfuckery underway.

Their Armageddon symbolism is being played out with the sacrifice of real lives.

The economies are intentionally collapsed. Food is controlled and hyper-inflated. Housing is removed. The people are made desperate. The oldest trick in the book is being played out right now to get around the so-called "fiscal cliff." It's the same trick that was played during the Great Depression.

Except the propagandists of Nazi Germany would have been creaming their pants over the control they could have of people's minds with today's media...

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Willow's Smoking Hot Full Moon Eclipse Report - Ten Dollahs Makes It Hollah!

Photo: Willow

Includes: Gemini Full Moon lunar eclipse, Black Moon Lilith, Mercury stationing direct, Jupiter retrograde, Yod formation

This report talks about the upcoming Full Moon eclipse (November 28) and provides details on how to successfully navigate the time period following it.


 
 
I don't have a service to mail this out (just me), so please allow about 12 hours from the time of purchase. If you haven't received it within 12 hours, please contact me at willowsweb [at] hushmail.com. (Note: I've switched e-mail addresses. Please use the hushmail.com address, but I will still check the shaw.ca address.)

If you'd like the report sent to an e-mail other than the one associated with your PayPal account, please let me know. 
 
Happy Full Mooning!

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

The Official Hand-Off of Saturn's Dispositors: Venus Conjunct Saturn, Mars Conjunct Pluto

Photos: Willow

Scorpio's co-ruling planets Mars and Pluto form a conjunction at 8 degrees Capricorn on November 27, hot on the heels of a Venus-Saturn conjunction at 6 degrees Scorpio November 26. The bodies in Scorpio are in supportive sextile to the bodies in Capricorn, and, for the most part, this provides a productive outlet for the charge.

This is the first conjunction of Venus and Saturn post-Saturn in Libra transit. While Saturn was in Venus-ruled Libra, transiting Venus was its dispositor, meaning it held a crucial layer of influence over the proceedings. It was the primary planet to look to (by sign and aspects) as far as making Saturnine progress in the sign of the scales. Love, relationship, partnership, the social realms, balance, justice, beauty, money, and values were all key themes.

This is their first meeting in the zodiac over the past three years when benefic Venus is not acting as Saturn's dispositor, and this has a bittersweet tenor.

Venus gave up its duties as dispositor of Saturn when Saturn entered Scorpio October 5, but we can consider this Venus-Saturn conjunction, followed by Mars and Pluto coming together, as the official ceremony handing the reins over to new co-dispositors Mars and Pluto.

War/action planet Mars and Lord of the Underworld Pluto now become the planets to watch and to work with in order to meet Saturn in Scorpio's considerable challenges and to capitalize on its powerful opportunities for advancement.

This is also where the carryover of Saturn in Libra energy, that exalted energy that has kept us buffered in certain ways, officially drops away.

Saturn entered its retrograde shadow - the degrees to which it will return during its next retrograde period - on November 14, just after the Alpha Snake Scorpio New Moon solar eclipse. We're no longer coasting on the progress we made during Saturn's transit of the sign of its exaltation, Libra. Now, we start to dig into the real meat of the Saturn in Scorpio transit.

Our challenges are officially going from love (Venus) to war (Mars), and we can expect a certain drop off into more serious themes here. ("Fiscal cliff," anyone? World War Three, anyone?) Give yourself time to adjust, but try not to resist the serious tone.
 
With heavy hitters Mars and Pluto as dispositors, our Saturnine progress hinges on our ability to successfully direct ourselves through some tough and intricate territory. Survival, including emotional and psychological survival, become stronger imperatives. We have to require more of people now - in some cases, much more - eliminating elements that strike discordant notes in our lives. It's going to require more grit and more skill as we dig deeper for strength, for context, and for guidance over the next three years.

Mars and Pluto form their conjunction on a degree of Capricorn associated with the Sabian Symbol "An Angel Comes Carrying a Harp." I'm not a fan of carrying symbolism too far, but we know what HAARPs we're dealing with these days, as well as their effects. The dark angels of the symbolic End Times play a hellish tune, indeed.

Mars is the planet related to personal direction and goals. Pluto relates to broader imperatives for grand-scale collective change and soul-deep (sometimes hellish) growth. With the Mars conjunction to Pluto, in effect for the next two weeks, our personal directions and goals are deepening and strengthening as we're made aware, in no uncertain terms, of the situations we find ourselves in on this planet.

These two last formed a conjunction at 4 degrees Capricorn on December 13, 2010, also conjunct Mercury Rx and the Capricorn North Node.

As Mars and Pluto now move into their full influence as dispositors, this initial conjunction acts as a potent directional point, and in some cases, a re-directional point, especially related to career moves, public image and identity, and the orienting of ourselves toward reaching our full potentials as determined by Pluto.

Just remember: not everyone will be using this conjunction to reach deeper levels of honesty, integrity, and authenticity.

From a previous post:

"Understand that with Pluto, there's a trajectory toward maintaining corrupt power structures that is often much more popular and lucrative than the trajectory toward legitimacy, transparency, and necessary change."

We'll be able to see who is choosing which path quite clearly now, as long as we work for that awareness. 

This Mars-Pluto conjunction holds the possibility for stab-yo-Mama-in-the-back ambition and vicious self-advancement, literally drawing on the power of hell (Pluto) and the worst elements of human nature to reach personal objectives (Mars). There is a drive toward dominance and saturation by the corporate brand/identity involved with this one, trickling down to the smallest of businesses. Underhanded and ruthless manoeuvres can be expected as people position themselves and their businesses accordingly. Corporate interests and those furthering them will be using this energy to drive to the net, gobbling up competitors and dumping anyone or anything that might slow them down (including loyal employees, salaried positions, pension funds, benefits...).

For those not choosing to reinforce corruption and abomination for personal gain...

Personal goals that don't have the depth, the maturity, or the long-term legs will be unceremoniously dropped on the Plutonic funeral pyre. Say goodbye, but don't spend too long in mourning. We don't have time to waste.

Old desires are burning out, being Plutonically purged from our systems. We start to see how some of the prior orientations were weak, naive, and off-the-mark while simultaneously carving out a truer and more vital path.

The greatest progress and achievements now come from the soul out.

The more awareness we have of the broader context on this planet and our places within it, the more effective our personal directions will be.

When personal goals are aligned with the broader goals Pluto has for collective change and transformation, we're allowed to make real, concrete progress with otherwordly assistance. When we're working as full-on Plutonic change agents within our personal lives, we're in the sweet spot. What we want is also what is wanted for and from and through us.

When we aren't, we can expect distortion.

Dig deeper than you have. Let Pluto inform your actions, guide your directions. Go gracefully and bravely. And kick some butt.

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Pallas Athene Direct Within An Asteroid-Based Mutable T-Square

Female warrior asteroid Pallas Athene has been retrograde in soupy Pisces for a month-and-a-half and goes direct November 20 at 22 degrees.

Pallas Athene going direct in this sign makes me think of Uma Thurman's drug overdosed gangster girlfriend character in Pulp Fiction snapping awake after that adrenalin shot to the heart.

Or maybe it's more like her Kill Bill character coming out of the coma, hellbent on revenge.

Whatever Uma performance you liken it to, Pallas Athene is waking up, and though she may not be able to do much about it at the moment from foggy Pisces, she's becoming very aware of who is fucking with whom.

From a previous post, Mars Square Pallas Athene Rx in Pisces: Kicking up the Etheric Catfights:

"The asteroid representing the female warrior who did it as well as, if not better than, the guys has been highly prominent over the past months, stirring its themes to the blazing point. Pallas Athene in Aries was up front and centre during the first two exact squares of Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn in June and September, tightly conjunct Uranus. This added the element of establishment-busting female fight, female leadership, and feminine strategic direction to the proceedings.

Pallas Athene retrograded back into watery Pisces October 3 for a bit of a break from the fiery Arien front lines, but it's still carrying the charge from those Uranus-Pluto squares. Pallas stations direct November 20 at 22 degrees Pisces, re-entering Aries January 10, 2013. From there, it makes its final pass through the Uranus-Pluto square with a conjunction to Uranus in Aries January 28 and a square to Pluto in Capricorn February 12, 2013. This asteroid just keeps on kicking ass."

Pallas Athene has been on a sort of court-ordered "rest cure" after her Herculean effort during the first two Uranus-Pluto squares, and she's none too happy about the groggy after-effects. This lady needs her edge and her keen, strategic wits about her, and after a retrograde in Pisces - no matter how short - she's feeling a little fuzzy around the edges.

The etheric catfights are getting a little tiresome, too. Pallas Athene would rather bring it all out into the open, but the battles remain obscured, in the dreamy metaphysical and psychic realms, until January 10, 2013.

Once direct, Pallas Athene will be gunning for zero Aries so she can get back to the Uranus square Pluto action in early 2013.

A spicy, asteroid-based mutable t-square with soul mate asteroid Juno in Sagittarius and keeper-of-the hearth asteroid Vesta in Gemini, in effect from now into the first week of December, provides plenty of stimulation until then.

The feminine asteroids are generally considered secondary influences in astrology, so the effects can be subtle, but they're important.

This t-square indicates frictional contacts possible related to the communication of personal wisdom and truth. Differing ideals as we move deeper into a new astrological era are creating tension and division on many fronts. Differing takes on the situations we find ourselves in on the planet - and what to do about them - are creating clashes.

This t-square configuration kicks up yet another wave of angst coming from the witchy lines, the priestess lines, the alchemical artist lines, the wise woman lines, and the earth mother lines.

Juno is outspoken, flamboyant, and hand-on-her-hip righteous on the Sagittarius end of the Gemini-Sagittarius polarity but must be careful not to become strident, grating, and self-righteous. This is the type of eye-rolling irritation that can come from all those self-declared visionaries, wise ones, and goddesses running around these days.

On the Gemini end, Vesta holds a major investment in keeping the social gears functioning, the discourse flowing, and the ideas cross-pollinating. Vesta in Gemini puts a great deal of effort into networking and keeping things socially cohesive. The caution there is that things might be kept too superficial and watered-down to be meaningful in any way.

My guess is Juno in Sagittarius won't be letting that happen.

Squares to both Juno and Vesta from Pallas Athene in Pisces indicate some acceptance, transcendence, and "giving it up to the universe/God" are necessary as we roll with things, staying fluid and adaptable through the frictional spots.

The spicy, feisty Juno-Pallas Athene square is exact November 28 and occurs with Mars and Pluto conjunct in Capricorn and Venus and Saturn conjunct in Scorpio. This one is particularly loaded. The friction here, as we come into contact with soul-triggering people and situations, helps us to get very clear on our own truth and beliefs, particularly heading into December 21, 2012 with the "Biblical End Times/Ascension/Beam Me Up, Scotty" rhetoric flying fast and furious.

Stay loose. Stay fluid. Don't become overly concentrated in one area of this t-square. Keep things moving like a buzzing bee in a field full of flowers.

The fourth (and stabilizing) leg of this t-square is Virgo, so discernment is key. Filter and guard your mental space from the December 2012 blah blah blah and the myriad soapbox sitters catching a ride on the bluster and buzz. Choose your angles and your battles. Say your piece, but don't force the issue if you run into opposition - especially if you're outnumbered. Pay attention to social tension as a guidance mechanism and adjust accordingly.

The asteroid-based mutable t-square loosens by the second week of December with Vesta Rx in Gemini moving out of range, but its tensions and themes stay with us into winter solstice.

The spice will be stirred yet again by the Sagittarius New Moon at 21 degrees on December 13, conjunct Juno in Sagittarius and square Pallas Athene. This forces us to clear a path through the cacophony based on our own truth and nothing but.

The frictional themes stay in our face, brought right up into our current, conscious moment, as the Sun moves from that New Moon into the exact square to Pallas Athene in Pisces on December 15.

The Sun will continue its transit of late Sagittarius in a conjunction to Juno, finally forming the exact aspect at 1 degree Capricorn just after winter solstice on December 22.

Communication planet Mercury in Sagittarius squares Pallas Athene in Pisces December 29, triggering friction again and indicating potentially charged interactions, double meanings, and obscured verbal-psychic barbs.

What we believe and what we hold to be true or untrue as we head into this winter solstice are very important as far as the unfolding of events. We're experiencing the intentional machinations toward another world war, which becomes oh-so-clear by December 30 as the Sun conjuncts Pluto in Capricorn, but the truth is, it's all man-made and manipulated. There isn't any "divine direction" behind these rockets and bombs.


With all the feisty feminine asteroid action going on, hematite shields can come in handy. If anyone is in need of some lovely protection of this sort, I have a new hematite set available on the jewellery site that is simple, elegant, and powerful. I like the necklace so much, I made one for myself!

Friday, November 16, 2012

Give Value For Value Received - Buy a Voluntary Subscription to Willow's Web Astrology Blog

I understand there are 300 - 400 English-language astrology blogs out there, and this may make astrological analysis seem cheap, easy, and somewhat expendable. "If one blog goes down, there are 10 more just like it to fill its place, right?"

I know there are hundreds of astrology blogs out there, but, honestly, there isn't another Willow's Web Astrology blog out there.

If you're a regular reader here and regularly take something of value from this blog, please consider purchasing a voluntary suscription to the site. (And thank-you kindly to those who have already subscribed!)

Voluntary Subscriptions to WWA blog


This request is going out only to those who have expendable income. The smallest subscription amount is $30 per year. The highest is $120 per year.

These subscriptions really do keep this site going, and I appreciate each and every one of them.

I am also going to start posting some pay-only articles in the future. These articles will be in-depth Willow wisdom, and they will not be available anywhere else.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Saturn in Scorpio: Grounding the Charge and Avoiding the Wrong Astrological Mixes

From a previous post:

"Scorpio is a sign, co-ruled by Mars and Pluto, that involves complex attractions. Mars is the planet of personal desire, attraction, and sexuality, while Pluto involves attractions of the soul, designed to draw us into deep (and sometimes hellish horrifying) processes of change and metamorphosis. Plutonic attractions catalyze a process that leaves us in an altered, yet ultimately stronger and more powerful, state, not the same as we once were. In Scorpio, we experience the interplay between personal will and transpersonal will, personal desire and transpersonal desire, what we want and what is wanted for and from and through us.

Plutonic attractions are often both magnetic, drawing us like moth to flame, and repulsive. One side of the magnet attracts; the other repels. With Pluto involved, we experience both. There is an intricate interplay, and it doesn't take much to turn passionate love into passionate hate and vice versa.

There is a theme with Scorpio and Pluto of being attracted to those we secretly (or not-so-secretly) hate. This attraction brings us into contact, again and again, with people and situations that disgust, horrify, and enrage...but also fascinate, titillate, and compel. We hate ourselves for being attracted, but it's difficult (though not impossible) to break away."

One of the great things about Saturn's almost three-year transit of Scorpio is: people are going to be able to break away.

Saturn in Scorpio grounds the charge of the sign, and as a result, the cyclical, moth-to-flame attractions have less control. Those who are used to having that sexy, seductive, highly-charged pull at their disposal are going to find their drawing power limited.

People are going to be able to extricate themselves. They just aren't going to be as attracted or transfixed. The old dramatic draws will no longer draw. The sticking points will no longer stick.

People fascinated by "the charge" will willingly stay stuck, but most are going to be looking for more substance (Saturn) than that type of attraction (Scorpio) has to offer. Extrication will take patience and effort, but people are going to be able to get out of orbits that have drawn them in against their wills previously.

This includes astrologers' orbits. The re-jigging of mental pathways indicated by the current Mercury retrograde through Scorpio (November 6 - 26) is a boon for people who need to change their "astrological orbits," especially related to Mercurial paths through the world of internet astrology.

The Sun and Mercury Rx are currently coming together in interior conjunction on the Scorpio North Node (exact November 17). This conjunction acts as a laser pointing the way to more fruitful and satisfying tracks in all areas of life, particularly mental/communicative/informational. To get there, we first have to break the charge and the pattern of the ingrained past, and Saturn is here to assist on that front.  

During the transit of Saturn through Scorpio, we're going to be confronted by the lesson that certain people just don't mix. We have to respect the friction and resistance apparent in interactions now and address this in the way we structure things. People at cross-purposes coming into unstructured contact with each other will be sending up sparks. 

It's sort of common sense. If you notice friction and resistance between two of your friends, don't make them co-Maids of Honour at your wedding unless you want the possibility of a hair-pulling slap fight looming over you on your blessed day.

But with Scorpio, it's also more complex than straight-up, overt dislike.

We're working with underlying, often hidden friction, charge, and anger coming up from the depths, which tell us in no uncertain terms that strong boundaries and limited contact are required in certain cases if we are to avoid the "powder keg" dynamics.

Even those who are compatible will require solid boundaries and containment over the next couple years, or things can become combustible. Saturn is transiting an area of the zodiac referred to as the Via Combusta. This area between 15 degrees Libra and 15 degrees Scorpio, excluding 23 and 24 degrees Libra, is known as the burning path or combustible way.

From a previous post:

"When the Via Combusta is strongly highlighted, there is a feeling of running the gauntlet through sometimes seemingly insurmountable odds, collective karma, booby traps, and friction, very often related to relationship dynamics, which are Libra and Scorpio territory.

There's a fire in the Via Combusta and within people with a strong Via Combusta signature that keeps them burning, burning, burning a path through life as you would imagine a shooting star burning an accelerated path through the night's sky. There's a feeling here that one has to keep going no matter what, through the wreckage of old, crystallized layers that would keep us stultified, constricted, and unsatisfied with old wounds perpetually reopened by a revolving cast of characters.

The basic goal of the Via Combusta is to reach escape velocity. In space travel, this is the point a space shuttle reaches when its speed and momentum allow it to escape the effects of gravity pulling it back down to Earth. In the case of the Via Combusta, it's about reaching the points of awareness and pure momentum where we escape the gravity of the sticky, tricky wreckage trying to draw us back into old territory, especially involving old constructs and dynamics of relating."

With Saturn transiting Via Combusta Scorpio, the weight of collective karmic charge is great, and it's going to take sustained effort to reach the desired escape velocity.

Saturn will be transiting the Via Combusta until November 21, 2013. The North Node enters the Via Combusta at 15 Scorpio on June 23, 2013, leaving it at 15 Libra on January 4, 2015. The potentially frictional and incendiary relational themes are with us for a while.

Over the next year, the strong Scorpio energy in the zodiac is drawing together certain people, situations, skills, talents, and elements in an attempt to create a new alchemy that will really get things done during these crisis times on the planet. It's the "last ditch," if you will. The Scorpio energy is attempting to bring about fusion, creating alchemical combinations that have never before existed, and this process can be particularly combustible. New allies and allegiances will be both forming and melting down in spectacular fashion.

This Scorpionic fusion effect will be apparent across many different disciplines, and we all hold some personal responsibility for what elements are brought together and in what ways.

As Scorpio is a sign related to divination and the "alchemical arts" like astrology and tarot, this is a time period when potentially discordant astrological traditions will be making contact.

In this Google era, astrological knowledge, traditions, and techniques are accessible to people in ways they never have been before. Different traditions and different astrologers are coming into contact with each other in ways they never have in recorded history. And we have to understand that mixing the wrong elements can create some very nasty reactions.

There are belief systems, allegiances, motivations, and traditions underlying anyone's practise of astrology, and Saturn in Scorpio is a time to be very clear on that. Certain astrologers, as well as certain astrological traditions, don't mix well. The level of astrological cross-pollination going on today has never been seen before in recorded history, and we have to be careful to what and to whom we expose ourselves. Readers of astrology should be aware of this, careful of the elements and of the astrologers they bring together.

Astrology is not necessarily a case of "more is better."

Scorpio relates to what we're connected to ancestrally - themes, dynamics, and carryover from generations past - as well as to what we're furthering within our own lifetimes. With Saturn in the sign, there are challenges related to the ancestral lines, and there are grudge matches waiting to play out if we are not careful to maintain boundaries.

We have to feel out what we're connected to (what runs through our blood), what they're connected to (what runs through their blood), whether there is compatibility there, and how to maintain proper boundaries even when there is compatibility.

Saturn in Scorpio is a time period of restrained and restricted energy. There just isn't time or energy for the same old dramas. Because of this, it's in the best interests of most to responsibly avoid the powder keg dynamics.

Starting to work with these themes now, shoring yourself up and creating solid boundaries, is a great way to proactively use the Saturn in Scorpio energy to your long-term benefit.

Venus is currently in Via Combusta Libra, making relationships, money, and values particularly charged territory. Conjunctions to fixed stars Spica and Arcturus on November 16 and 17 will hopefully provide some temporary respite from the heat of the relational burning path.

Venus enters Scorpio late on November 21, leaving the Via Combusta December 4.

Venus forms a conjunction to the Scorpio North Node December 12, and at that time, we should be well aware of which relationships are moving forward, which have run their course, and which are better left alone altogether.

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Shedding Skins at the Alpha Snake New Moon

Photo: Willow

The New Moon on November 13 is a total solar eclipse at 21 degrees Scorpio, and it packs a punch.

Eclipses can be very dramatic (and sometimes traumatic). They're super-charged New and Full Moons that can kick up major events - both natural and occult-planned. Eclipses can be seen as unstable, backdrop change indicators. With a New Moon solar eclipse like this one, one very potent layer of things is ending, burning itself out, and another is beginning.

This New Moon could potentially bring some drama, as it conjuncts both the unfortunate fixed star Alpha Serpentis (Unukalhai) and the Scorpio North Node. Spicy.

Alpha Serpentis is the Alpha Snake. The Head Reptilian Honcho. In sidereal astrology, this fixed star has been associated with suicide, insanity, accidents, love problems, loss, and earthquakes. All the fun stuff. Snakes have a complex and powerful symbolism. They're associated with regeneration and healing and also with poisons/medicines that can heal or kill. Homeopathy. Coming from another layer of the symbolism, they're associated with all things shifty, shady, and darkly cunning.

Snakes are naturally associated with the sign of Scorpio, which makes this New Moon that much more powerful. Doubling up on the snakey Scorpy. We have to be careful here.

Scorpio is precious medicine, but it can kill you if you aren't careful.

From a previous post:

"Scorpio is venomous - you'd better believe it. But it also has the poison that heals those last resort cases, and at this point on Planet Earth, we're all pretty much enmeshed in one of those."

With the sign of Scorpio, something has to die so that something else can live. Extreme, tragic, dramatic. Also just real life on Planet Earth.

We're shedding multiple skins here at this New Moon eclipse - as many as we can skim off - in an attempt to proactively drop deadweight that could slow us down or trip us up as Saturn moves further into Scorpio. 

Saturn enters its retrograde shadow at 4 degrees Scorpio on November 14 in an awkward and uncomfortable 150-degree quincunx aspect to Uranus in Aries. Uranus in Aries has nothing but our future direction in mind. Saturn in Scorpio lets us know in no uncertain terms that we have much to address and resolve before we move on. We've gone in the wrong directions entirely in the past, unaware of some crucial layer of context, and we can't afford that now. We have to be directed from the root, from the core, from the soul with no false illusions about the scenarios we find ourselves in on this planet.

Things start to get more dense and complicated once Saturn enters the retrograde shadow, and this Scorpio New Moon is one last chance to drop what we need to drop and reconfigure where we need to reconfigure. The weight of collective karmic charge will be arduous enough over the next three years without dragging along with us layers of the situation we could easily have sloughed off.

Expect and capitalize on opportunities for resolution and completion.

The deadweight we're wriggling out of here could involve situations and relationships that are no longer earning their keep (maybe they never were). It could involve enervating emotional and psychological patterns we're straight-up sick of. It could involve versions of ourselves that have become brittle, lifeless, cardboard cut-outs. Or it could involve unrealized, obsessed-upon desires that have kept us tied up, constricted, hamstrung.

We're letting go of energy drains and recommiting in more vital directions.

With so much Scorpio in the zodiac (Sun, Moon, North Node, Saturn, and soon-to-be Mercury Rx), this New Moon is a full, emotional-body cleansing, which could be exhausting depending how much there is to purge. Full Moons are generally high energy points, while New Moons are low energy points. Give yourself and others lots of down time for the reconstitution back into full physical form following this one.

Traditionally, eclipses were in effect only in the areas where they were visible. Only those areas could expect the dramatic (and sometimes traumatic) events and super-charged backdrop changes. This makes sense. Before telephones, internet, or mass media, if you couldn't see an eclipse with your own two eyes, you wouldn't know it was happening. The current rules would have a little more grey area, in my opinion. With mass media, we can be aware that an eclipse is occurring somewhere else in the world, and with internet, we can even "see" it online.

This eclipse will be visible in parts of Australia, New Caledonia, New Zealand, South America, and Antarctica.

The following 28 days should be particularly dramatic and renewal-oriented for those with strong Scorpio in the natal chart.

As a New Moon involves the slow emergence out of a dark period into a new cycle, related events are not always immediately apparent. Scorpio is one of the signs that is particularly process-oriented, so the process gets a big kick start here, but the full results may only be apparent later.

Whatever it is in a state of alchemical morph (related to the house in your natal chart where the eclipse falls), things start to move coming out of this New Moon.

So we're standing on the Dark of the Moon side of this Alpha Snake portal from 3:22 p.m. CST today until 4:08 p.m. on November 13, stripping down to our most vital essentials. But we're also determining what makes it through with us to the other side.

Ensuring we're leaving detrimental influences on the other side of this portal is going to take some steel-willed concentration and focus. Mercury Rx is backing into its second square to Neptune in Pisces, clouding our vision, and some fairly unpleasant things could be slipped by us if we're not vigilant.

We all, ultimately, have to be responsible for what we bring through this New Moon portal. For what we mix into our own Scorpionic alchemical soup. There are certain dynamics, people, and situations we should just not be playing with now.

From a previous post:

"Underlying loyalties shake out under this Moon, and we start to get a clearer picture of where people stand as we head deeper into Saturn in Scorpio. Incompatibilities glossed over during Saturn in Libra are pushed to the surface, like it or not. Crossed motivations send up sparks. Lips will curl, unconsciously, showing our fangs if we come too near those with whom we lack inherent common ground. The ties that bound friendly allies during Saturn in Libra snap like dry, autumn twigs under Saturn in Scorpio. Soul compatibility is something altogether different.

Soul-deep incompatibilities go from cracks, to divisions, to chasms. There can be no doubt where we stand on the other side of this New Moon portal."

The Moon will be very active within the Dark of the Moon/Balsamic phase heading into Tuesday's New Moon. From Libra, it will square Pluto, trine Jupiter, and Juno, conjunct Venus, and sextile Mars. From Scorpio, it will trine Neptune, Chiron, and Ceres, conjunct Saturn, quincunx Uranus, and sextile Pluto. This brings a lot of elements into the mix.

With the conjunctions to Venus and Saturn, determining the right alchemy for relationships - both personal and professional - as well as correct boundaries are a big part of the process.

Understand your own bottom line. Watch for slippery-tongued plays on your compassion, your pity, your guilt, your sense of the spiritual, and your idea of what a "good person" should be and do. Filter the Neptunian-heightened impressions coming to you now in both waking and dreaming worlds. These are all ways we can be fooled now.

The combination of strong Scorpio with a Mercury-Neptune square makes things ripe for "you're not who I thought you were" experiences where we realize our interplay with another person is not what we were hoping. Scorpio loves laying waste to an illusion.

The focus now is on resolution, completion, finishing, letting it burn out, dropping it, spinning it off, getting lighter.

If in doubt, let it go, and this includes ties to people. Close out old, unsatisfying dynamics without fear: anything that is meant to go on from here will regenerate into something better, clearer, stronger, and more vital later on.

Set the tone how you would like it, no compromises, and don't let anything slip through your own New Moon portal for which you are not willing to be personally responsible.

Friday, November 9, 2012

Neptune Stations Direct and Brings the Foggy, the Floaty, the Wispy, and the Surreal

Neptune stations direct at 0 degrees Pisces in the wee hours of November 11. Neptune is conjunct wounded healer Chiron in Pisces and square both Black Moon Lilith in Gemini and Mercury in Sagittarius.

When a planet appears to slow in the zodiac to station either retrograde or direct, we often experience a palpable concentration of that planet's energy and themes.

Neptune is the planet associated with, among other things, dreams; illusions; spiritual communion and guidance; psychic connection; the unconscious; sublime artistic ability; surreality; escapism; oceans; fluids; flooding; permeation; blind spots; smokescreens; fraud; deception; and addictions.

The Neptune effects will be strongest during the first half of November, dissipating toward the end of the month. With stationing Neptune permeating the astro atmosphere, we can expect a few of the following symptoms to be kicked up until then:

- Dreams can be much more vivid and involved. They can have a "journeying" quality, as if we have traveled through many other worlds, and we can wake up feeling more tired than when we went to bed. Prophetic or foreshadowing dreams are more common.

- We can experience disrupted sleep with odd periods of wakefulness in the night.

- Sleep can be deeper, as if we're falling off into utter abyss and have to drag ourselves out and back into waking life. We may sleep longer or more often than usual, and people can continue to have a sleepy, dreamy quality throughout the waking hours. The standard afternoon coffee just doesn't cut it!

- Psychic connections to people from the past, present, or even future can be stronger and more apparent - even when we don't want them to be. We may become aware of ways we are connected to others that were previously unknown to us.

- "Cosmic winks" and communication from the universe are more apparent. It can sometimes feel as if the radio or TV is communicating directly to you. A stronger than usual feeling that you are not alone.

- Daydreaming increases. Imagery from the mind's eye is clearer and more active than usual and can be distracting in day-to-day life.

- Our psychic space is more permeable when Neptune is strong, and we have to carefully filter the heightened impressions we're receiving.

- People can be more impressionable, easily swayed, and prone to wishful thinking, particularly with love relationships. We can be convinced of things when Neptune is strong that we could not be convinced of at other times. The standard, "What was I thinking?" In the same way that we can believe a dream we've had is real, it's possible to believe things are one way when all logical conclusions (and later, hindsight) would indicate otherwise.

- We can be more easily deceived by people, missing major character flaws because we're blinded by the good in them, by their "spiritual auras," or by their potential.

- Plumbing problems are more likely. A low water level for flushing toilets, in particular, is common during Neptune stations.

- Personal plumbing issues are also more likely. Urinating more than usual or having to use a (hopefully natural) diuretic to assist urination. (Uva Ursi works well.) Urinary tract irritation is more common when Neptune is strong, so avoid soft drinks, caffeine, and alcohol, and increase intake of water and real cranberry juice.

- There can be a strong jonesing for drugs and/or alcohol.

- But we are also more easily altered and affected by drugs and alcohol.

- Food allergies and sensitivities can be heightened. We're craving "fun and easy" foods, but they can have ill effects.

- We can be more sensitive to perfumes and scents.

- There can be a giddy, giggly, intoxicating quality in the air. Neptunian whiffs of ether. This effect is currently mitigated quite strongly by a trine to stern and grounding Saturn in Scorpio.

- People can be more sensitive than usual and their feelings more easily hurt. There is stronger sensitivity to the suffering in the world, and people are more easily brought to tears when Neptune is strong. The Neptunian waterworks. People may choose more isolation than usual to offset this heightened sensitivity.

- We can spend money on things, particularly on frivolous things, that we wouldn't ordinarily spend money on. When Neptune is strong, we crave escapism, entertainment, and ease from the daily grind. Pizza delivery and Chinese take-out must see an increase in business!

- The simplest daily tasks can seem irritating and overwhelming. Multi-tasking is more difficult.

- People may embrace their inner dirty hippie and skip a few showers. Personal hygiene is one of those daily tasks that can seem impossibly arduous when Neptune is strong.

- It can be difficult to make ourselves fully understood, especially apparent with the current Mercury-Neptune square, as if we are yelling underwater. People may pick up on one layer of what we're saying without grasping the full meaning.

- Generally, a lot of projection is flying around. People could be interacting with their own fabricated versions of who you are, rather than anything based in reality.

- Strongly Neptunian/Piscean people can usually be spotted by a sort of dreamy, shrouded, faraway look around the eyes. The area around the eyes can appear a little shadowed and hollowed-out.

Neptune goes retrograde once per year for about five months.

Until 2021, Neptune goes retrograde in the month of June and direct in the month of November. You can expect the Neptune station symptoms to be kicked up at those times.

And remember, folks, Neptunian sobriety tests will be randomly applied in the weeks surrounding the Neptune station for the safety of yourselves and others.